Iron Bridge LLC, which bought the former Layrite Products Co. site two years ago and has been acquiring small parcels of adjoining property at the East Spokane location since then, plans to develop a 19-acre riverfront business park there.


Kent Hull, Iron Bridges managing partner, says the company hopes to start demolishing some of the old structures on the site next spring. If interested tenants come forward, construction of the first buildings at the industrial park, which the company is calling Iron Bridge Campus, could start soon thereafter, he says.


We want this site to be a catalyst for further cleanup and in-fill in this part of Spokane, Hull says.


Property boundaries for the proposed park are jagged, but generally include Trent Avenue to the south, the Spokane River to the west, a Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railway Co. railroad line to the north, and Hogan Avenue to the east.


Iron Bridge wont build structures in the park until users have agreed to take space, so a time line hasnt been established for construction of new buildings yet.


As envisioned, the Iron Bridge Campus would include as many as eight new office-and-industrial buildings that would have a total of about 400,000 square feet of floor space. Depending on users needs, those buildings could range in size from 20,000 to 144,000 square feet of floor space. In addition to the new buildings, a 28,000-square-foot, barrel-shaped warehouse at the north end of the property is expected to be preserved and incorporated into a larger structure.


About 80 percent of the space in the business park likely would be industrial space, possibly high-tech or biotech manufacturing, and about 20 percent likely would be office space, Hull says.


In addition to the larger buildings, Hull says two retail pads are planned along Trent Avenue, each of which would have between 2,000 square feet and 4,000 square feet of space. A fast-food restaurant and a bank currently are eyeing those pads, he says, though he declines for now to identify them.


Eventually, Iron Bridge also envisions building a multilevel parking garage at the park that could accommodate 900 cars.


Hull says he expects that a three-story, 45,000-square-foot Sunrise Woods Products Inc. building at the southwest corner of the planned park will become part of the Iron Bridge Campus. Iron Bridge LLC doesnt own that structure, but expects either to buy it or to agree with the buildings current owner, Jeff Barden, to include it in the business-park project. Barden, who owns Sunrise Wood Products, couldnt be reached for comment.


Hull previously owned Hullpak Manufacturing, a packing-equipment maker here, and operated it just a few blocks south of the Iron Bridge Campus site. He moved the business to Spokanes North Side in the early 1990s and sold it in 1994. He says he was drawn back to the East Spokane neighborhood because of its proximity to downtown Spokane, Interstate 90, the Riverpoint Higher Education Park, and Gonzaga University.


Iron Bridge is owned by 10 investors, including Hull, from Spokane and the Seattle area. Wolfe Ballantyne Studio Architects, of Spokane, is designing the business park. Jim Quigley and Carl Guenzel, both of Kiemle & Hagood Co., are marketing it.


The development is named for an abandoned iron railroad bridge that crosses the Spokane River at the west side of the planned park. Iron Bridge LLC is working with the city of Spokane and local neighborhood groups on a plan to build a trail that would loop through the planned business park and across the bridge and connect to the Centennial Trail on the north side of the river and a second recreational trail, known as Tuffys Trail, on the south side.